We all love weekends, but this weekend is going to be more fun than usual with the arts and crafts festival scheduled in Sandy Hook on Saturday. I know, the weatherman is calling for some wet weather, but the list of activities –– from the farmers’ market to the petting zoo –– sounds like so much fun that few people will notice the rain. The festivities run from 10 am to 3 pm throughout Sandy Hook Center.

If you are a weather wimp and don’t want to get out of your car, St John’s Church is holding its “Donut Drive-Thru” 10 am to 2 pm. Featured fare will be homemade donuts, doughboys, and scones, along with gourmet coffee. The congregation invites everyone to plan to stop by for breakfast or brunch while enjoying the fair.

Former Newtown resident Polly Brody is still busy writing her poetry and staying close to nature now that she’s living in Southbury. This weekend she is leading a free program at Audubon Center at Bent of the River in Southbury, and she would love to see old friends and meet some new ones. Polly’s program is for the early birds, though –– it starts at 7 am Sunday! Her bird walk is timed for the most exciting month to watch birds. According to her program notes, this is when huge numbers of birds return to the north to nest and raise their next generation, they are at their most colorful breeding plumage and are full of territorial song. I say if they’re singing at that hour, they deserve to be my own little treats. There’s no charge for Polly’s program, and all birders –– from novices to experts –– are welcome. Bring binoculars if you have them. The Audubon center is at 185 East Flat Hill Road, just off Route 172 next to South Britain Congregational Church.

Newtown author Sydney Eddison will be in Danbury this weekend, meeting readers and fans of her books as she discusses her newest release, The Gardener’s Palette: Creating Color in the Garden. Sydney will be at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Danbury Square on Sunday, May 4, at 3 pm. The Gardener’s Palette is a great little book full of gorgeous photos by Steve Silk and the comfortable writing style of Sydney. If you haven’t yet had a chance to look through Sydney’s newest book this would be a good opportunity to do so while also saying Hello to one of Newtown’s nicest people. If you’ve already purchased the book but haven’t met Sydney, bring your copy over to Barnes & Noble on Sunday and get it autographed.

Lexington Gardens hosted its first wedding last weekend. Tom Johnson allowed a couple to go into the nursery and garden center after hours on April 26 to get married, and while Tom admitted this week that he was a little nervous at first at how things would work out, “everything went very well,” he said. The couple and their guests gathered near the footbridge and pond to recite their nuptials. Among the guests were the stuffed mannequins Lexington Gardens customers have come to know over the years –– the male mannequin was set up near the entrance of the store with a sign that said, “Wedding” and one hand pointing the way toward the ceremony, while the female mannequin was seated right in the front row on the groom’s side.

Mark Dennen is looking for volunteers to help with the AmeriCares projects in Newtown this weekend. Anyone who can spare a few hours to help paint or do any of the other jobs should call Mark at 426-8064.

Bob Tendler came into the office Monday boasting about the nice weather. But when it was pointed out to Bob that the temperatures were supposed to cool again later in the week, he responded: “It can’t be Mother Nature doing this because a woman would never allow this. It has to be Father Nature.”

Doug Rodgers and Fritz Freeman joined Fritz’s son Woody in Boston to attend a Red Sox baseball game last Tuesday. Doug had tried for days to get “Monster Seats,” stadium seating that is on the “Green Monster” wall. He was fortunate enough to buy three seats in the “Monster Seat” section to watch the game. I haven’t heard how the view of the game was, but I know Boston defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-2.

I know Newtown’s budgetmakers have been saying the town is all tapped out, but it sure didn’t sound like it last Tuesday. While I was in Edmond Town Hall, I heard the tap-tap-tapping of scores of tiny feet in tap shoes scampering across the marble floor of the building’s main lobby. A pack of tiny tap dancers garbed in bright red outfits were returning from a break outdoors at the building’s front plaza to the auditorium stage where they would resume their practice for the Lathrop School of Dance’s upcoming Stardust Review.

I’ve heard that Board of Finance members often raise issues (about the need for fiscal responsibility) or they raise awareness (about the need to explain revaluation to the taxpayers) but I was surprised and impressed last week to note that they can also raise projector screens –– seemingly by remote control from all the way across a room. This magical moment happened during a Legislative Council public hearing and subsequent budget deliberations held at the Cyrenius Booth Library April 23. Just as Chairman Don Studley was about to make a point, there was a loud whirring sound and the white screen hanging down behind the 12 council members sitting in the public meeting room slowly rose to the ceiling. The wall behind the screen revealed artist Claudia Coopersmith’s painting of a young woman of the late 19th Century –– she could have been Mary Elizabeth Hawley as a girl –– reading a book while strolling down a path through fields and flowers. As members of the 21st Century audience struggled to understand what this pastoral scene had to do with the 2003–2004 budget proposal, Board of Finance member Mike Portnoy sheepishly confessed to having leaned against the back wall where the screen-raising button is located. Everyone shared a good laugh at Mike’s expense and then it was back to budget business.

If Mike were around, I’d ask him to lower the curtain on this column for another week, but I’ll be back, so be sure to…

Read me again.